On this Holy Saturday night......

...may this setting sun remind you that tomorrow will bring another day....

The Day that Jesus rose from the dead to save us all...............

The days after the kids left....

they left on Sunday morning about 9:30 and guess what I did the rest of the day?  Yep.....that's all!

MONDAY, 25TH....We spent most of the morning cleaning up boat and doing laundry....um, I should change that to read....cap'n did laundry....But by afternoon, we were bustiCn' out of the marina.  We crossed over to St. John and were going to stay at Coral Harbor but when we got over there.....hmmmmm...decided to keep on going.  We found a little bay, Salt Pond Bay, with about 5 mooring balls in it. Nice little beach area.

 So, decided to stay there for the night.  Had read in the cruising guide that the snorkeling was good there so I jumped in.  Absolutely beautiful! I had never seen coral the size that it was here.,..and lotsa fish. I may say it's right up top with the prettiest snorkeling I've done.

We grilled pork chops and had pasta with bernaise sauce for dinner on the boat.

It was a pretty rocky night, meaning the winds were high and let's just say, we were definitely rocked to sleep this night!

TUESDAY, 26TH...This morning, cap'n made our favorite breakfast.....good ol' homecooked grits!

YUM!

Then we were off to St. Thomas!  We slipped into Red Hook.  Once cap'n got the boat settled in, we strolled into the town.  Cute. But very busy.  We stopped at Duffy's Love Shack!

cap'n just being cap'n~

We went down to the Fishtails Grill to sit on the water and watch the boats come in and go out....a fave past time of ours...and ended up eating fried and barbequed shrimp after we saw a few of those plates pass by us!  Back to the boat where a gorgeous full moon greeted us

 

WEDNESDAY, 27TH...Up and off to motor to Charlotte Amalie, the capitol of St. Thomas.  We rode thru a neighborhood of anchored boats that were right next to 2 HUGE cruise ships. Ugh. This is not a good site to plain ol' sailors who like to have the seas to themselves...heh!  We took off for town to explore....walking 2 miles to get there.  After seeing 2 more cruise ships docked and realizing that prolly about 8000 tourists were in town, we thought...uh-oh.  Found Bumpa's for lunch.

BEST SANDWICH EVER!  Seriously. A fish rueben.  Grilled grouper with sauerkraut and cole slaw topped with the best rueben dressing I've ever tasted...on light rye bread. that had been cooked on griddle.  YUM is all I've got to say bout that.....and I WILL be making those at home!  After lunch, we walked a bit thru town and it was amazing.....the number of people and the "duty free diamond shops" that were everywhere.  Yuck.  So, we hopped a local bus and rode from one end of the island to the other with the local people.  Best way to see a town is to ride with the people who live there.

Once back to boat, I collapsed onto the bench.  It was hot! Cap'n put our shade up and we chilled, watching those huge cruise ships pull out of the harbor. Crazy.  My first and LAST time to ever visit St. Thomas!

THURSDAY,28th....cap'n was ready for some pancakes so we went to Tickles to eat breakfast. As we were working our way back to bvi's, our next stop was going to be Sapphire Bay but there was no room for us there, Easter weekend very busy here, so we stayed another night at Red Hook.  On way there, we saw lots of sea turtles and 4 dolphins swam right beside the boat.  Cool.  Wish ms lilli could see that!  A quiet day.

FRIDAY, 29TH...GOOD FRIDAY...which is today.  We were outa there by 9am and came back to Nanny Cay so we could watch the BVI annual sailboat regatta. It's a 4 day race with lots of parties and food and people.  Cap'n loves to see all the boats. He even raced in this same race 3 yrs ago! And it rained today, which was nice.  A respite from the sun and a great way to wash the boat!

So........................I'm pretty well caught up now.  We are going to stay here for the weekend and watch the races. I'm trying to find a neat caribbean church to go to on Easter Sunday...I think a leetle reggae spirit may be exactly the way to rejoice in His rising....and thank Him for all he has given me.  Wouldn't mind a chocolate bunny ear to munch on either!!

 

Our friends from home will be coming in on Tuesday for 7 days......MORE FUN!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All messed up....

I'm having so much trouble getting blog posts done here and just a minute ago, while editing the Wet Dollar post, it put it back on top.  It should have appeared after the Day 3 post.   Oh well.....try as I may, it keeps messing with me.........

Wet Dollars!

Just like the Cap'n planned......perfect timing to arrive on Friday morning at Soggy Dollar Bar early.  We picked up a close mooring and we got a perfect table in the shade for chillin'!

 

"A main street that's a beach, the Stress Free Bar, a harbour known for its Lobster feasts, a bypass road that's just a short-stroll, the Soggy Dollar bar named for a patron who swam ashore and home of the Painkiller drink--this is the life that defines laid back!"

There is also a game that we found here waaaay back on our first visit called the Ring Toss....you know the one....where you try to hook a ring that is on a string onto a hook.  We even made one for our lakehouse.  Kids love it.   Well, take a look at the very first tree we ever played it on.  See the holes in both sides?  That's where so many people have slung the ring into the tree that it made holes!!

After a few hours here, we decided to make a move.  We were going to anchor over at Sandy Cay

 but we kept slipping, so we motored over to Foxy's and picked up a mooring there.

Someone spotted sea turtles in the water and since babyboy had bad sunburn and lil mama was taking care of my grandson and cap'n.....well, he's afraid of the water! (little joke there), somebody in this family had to represent.....so in I went!!  Saw two and got to swim right beside them. Very cool.  Since I was already in water, just decided to swim on up to Foxys and wait for the rest.  Foxy wasn't in town....he is in Annapolis on vacation!! Go figure!!

Back to the boat and over to Foxys 2 for the night.  Cooked steaks, potatoes and mushrooms with sauteed onions. Chilled on the boat this night and thorougly enjoyed my family!

 

 

Beware of Caribbean beach on Good Friday!

"Here's a Caribbean legend that probably won't be too popular with tourists: Tradition on some islands holds that if you step into the ocean on Good Friday, you'll turn into a fish. Others just say it's bad luck to go to the beach -- or at least bad form to be working on your tan on the day of the Crucifixion."   ~~gocaribbean.com~~

uh-oh!!!

Norman's Island on Saturday

....and Willie T's!!  The Bight is home to the Pirate Bar and Willie T's floating bar, world renowned for its...um, rowdy behavior.  That's why I kinda whispered it at the beginning!  But we spent most of the day on a beautiful beach with fun drinks and lotsa time to just chill.  I also kinda made my daughter in law go swimming with me so that one day I can tell my grandson I went swimming with him in the caribbean even before he was born!!  (smart yaya!!

(chad.....this is the same Pirate bar that you and charlie and matt went to that night.....they've slightly remodeled!!)

Talk about a lovely, laid back day!

 After the rest and relaxation, we thought we'd just visit Willie T's for a bit.  Hilarity ensued. For several hours.  SO glad I only sipped that last bit of tequilla!!

http://www.williamthornton.com/

Cap'n deposited us back at the boat and then went off and got some hamburgers to bring back to boat. He's a righteous cap'n, he is!!

SUNDAY MORNING came and it was time to take the babies to shore to get to the airport in time for their flight.

they ended up having a 12 hr travel day home because of delayed flights....hope that didn't tarnish their memory of the trip!

 

I'm going back someday
Come what may
To  Blue (Blew)Bayou
Where the folks are fine
And the world is mine
On Blue (Blew) Bayou
Where those fishing boats
With their sails afloat
If I could only see
That familiar sunrise
Through sleepy eyes
How happy I'd be

Thanks Kids for sharing your vacation time with your ol' mom and dad!!
 

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Day 3 with the kiddos!

We took off from Anegada early Thursday morn with all good intentions of going to Soggy Dollar Bar and Foxys on Jost Van Dyke but the ride was a bit choppy....bout 28 miles.....and by the time we got there, there was "no room at the inn"!  Meaning the waters were full of boaters and no moorings left to pick up.....so being so "we don't care where we go"......we just decided to Cane Garden Bay for the night and be one of the first ones back next morning.  So that's what we did!!  Once there, we walked the beach for a bit and went into Myetts for a cocktail and found 10 min of internet.....we hastily checked emails!  Also had dinner here but babyboy got a wee bit sunburned on our way back today and we called it an early night back at the boat.

cap'n looking out into the waters.....wonder what he's thinking....

 

 

 

Anegada

Up on Wednesday morn with a lovely sail to Anegada.
Anegada, an island 10 miles long by 2 1/2 miles wide with extensive salt ponds, reaches its highest point at 28 feet, hence its name which means the "drowned land." Of coral reef origins, Anegada has "extruded" sixteen miles of sandy beaches with a primeval quality. Anegada is "guarded" by the famous Horseshoe Reef which, at eighteen miles long, is one of the world's largest coral reefs.    Here's a link if you'd like to read about it...(Elaine!!!)http://www.b-v-i.com/Anegada/default.htm        We able to pick up a good mooring far away from the rest of the boats already there.  This was the line waiting to come in close to shore.

view from our boat as we approached the shore...with a few towels hanging to dry!

Once we had picked up mooring, cap'n and josh went to Neptune's Treasure restaurant to reserve our LOBSTER for dinner....more on that later!  They then rented a car so we could explore the island.  This is a very small place and not much there but what is there is AMAZEBALLS!!

First, we went to Loblolly Bay where josh and I snorkeled while the cap'n and hailey wandered around...AND....found Ritchie!!

Ritchie is an old hippie dude who lives in a tent in some trees on the beach. Hilarious...and I mean hilarious~ His job is what you see....he makes signs on old pieces of driftwood using the sun and a magnifying glass.

When the sun shifts in the sky, he just moves farther out till he finds it.

cap'n sat with him for awhile while he worked on some signs for us.

Leave it to cap'n and T-bacon to find the "dudes"!!

Sweet bar/restaurant area

there was a whole lotta this....

and this....

going on!!

Next, we got back in car and drove to the other end of the island to

Another beach bar and one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen in my time

I started to crop my shadow out but then decided to leave it.....proof that I was there!! heh.

wonder what the lil mama was thinking about?  that her life is getting ready to change BIG TIME!!

We headed back to Neptune Treasure, seeing flamingos on the salt pond on the way, and sat at the outside palapa until our reservation for dinner.

where we ate THIS!!!

and never have seen such a happy girl when they brought this huge gravyboat full of melted butter!

 

Whew!!!  What a fun, fun day!!  and I'm not sure but I think these two had a pretty special memory today!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

THE KIDS ARRIVED!!!!!

Josh and Hailey + 1!!!....my soon to be born grandson, Case!!  They flew into Beef Island on Monday, the 18th.  We were anchored at Marina Cay, not far away, so we hopped a ferry to the airport to pick them up!

It was really funny because we all flew into Beef Island on a little bitty bitty plane from San Juan and it was a wee bit scary. We were walking from ferry to the airport arrival gate when we saw them getting off plane, knowing they were prolly freaked out. We didn't tell them ahead of time....cap'n said, Awwwww, it will be a character building experience for them!! So we see them from outside the fencing and we start hollering and whistling...they just turned and rolled their eyes like "Well....there's mom and dad"!!! hahahahaha............and so the trip began!
We had to wait for the next ferry back to the boat so we sat at a "quaint" lil bar to wait.

 Ok Rachel and Lisa.....this is for you!  Ya'll know how the cap'n loves him up some hot box food in foreign countries. No different. At this lil bar, he found it immediately and filled with empanadas. You know what happened next!

We went back to the boat and into marina cay for a nice dinner. Up early the nest morning for the trip to Virgin Gorda and The Baths!

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest (after Tortola and Anegada) and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Located at approximately 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about 8 square miles (21 km²). Christopher Columbus is said to have named the island "The Fat Virgin", because the island's profile on the horizon looks like a fat woman lying on her side.
The main town is Spanish Town on the southwestern part of the island.
An unusual geologic formation known as "The Baths" located on the southern end of the island makes Virgin Gorda one of the BVI's major tourist destinations. At The Baths, the beach shows evidence of the island's volcanic origins, as huge granite boulders lie in piles on the beach, forming scenic grottoes that are open for the world to see.  (courtesy of Wiki)
A beautiful place to visit!  It was the first time for the kids so it was nice to see it thru their eyes...I'm going to show you just a bit of the glory!

the colors were amazing and just the thought of these formations being here for so many yrs is awesome!

 

Little Mama exploring!

Looking thru some of the boulders and there our girl sits!

We hiked to the top of the mountain where there is a cool restaurant/bar/swimming pool/gift shops....and had a few refreshments!  Beautiful views!!

I think the kids really enjoyed this experience!!

Next we were off to Bitter End and where the yacht club is.  The girls snagged some beach chairs and enjoyed the sun while the guys found a spot in the beach bar.  They also walked the docks to see some might fine yachts!!  Back to the boat for the night where we grilled salmon and bread, cooked some fried rice and re-capped our day. ( I made sure we did this each night so every detail would become a fun memory!! Mom thing...I know!)